yeah e e e e e e e like I'm not sure I understand that question and answer but well if he's not coming I don't know but I would I would
really start to take offense at some point you're like I'm ready as I can all right good evening I'd like to call the March 10th 2025 burough council meeting to order will the clerk please read the open public meeting
statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 Public Law 1975 specifying that time date and location by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building Municipal website providing a copy of the annual notice scheduled to the official newspapers of the burough and is on file
in the clerk's office will the clerk please call the role council president zamb Brana here councilman Collins councilman moo here councilwoman Payne here councilman posnanski here councilman Potter mayor Murray pres B tury Peter vinola pres burrow engineer
Mike mclen here burrow engineer L Lanka pres burrow administrator Frederick Carr Bor clerk Monica Orlando present uh will everyone please stand for a moment of silence which will be followed by the salute of the flag to the flag of the United States of
America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God and indivisible with intice all now is the time for public comment limited to the resolutions on the agenda only if you wish to speak please come up
to the microphone state your name and address for the record again this is the public portion is limited to the comments on the resolution listed on the agenda at this time there will be a 5 minute time limit as set forth by the rules of council if someone raises their hand please come up to the microphone
state your name and address for the record please seeing none I will close public comment ordinance hearing uh second reading the following ordinance was introduced on February 24th 20125 and
published in accordance with the law if any member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 24-1 1556 by title ordinance to amend ch chapter 4 General licensing and business regulations
Section 4-38 records of the revised General ordinances of the burrow of miltown subsection 4- 3812 Service rates may I have a motion in a second to adopt ordinance 24 1556 please 25-1 1556
sorry 25 so Mo second I have a motion made by council president and Brana seconded by councilwoman pay um now I will open the public hearing
for ordinance 25556 please state your name and address for the record seeing none I would close uh public comments uh is there any Council comments seeing none will a clerk please
call the rooll council president Zam BR I councilman mango record yeah Council woman Payne I councilman P nansuk yes I ordinance uh public hearing second reading following ordinance was
introduced on February 24th 2025 published accordance with law if any member the public wishes to comment on his orance they may do so after the reading will the clerk please read ordinance 25557 by title Please ordinance amending chapter 7 traffic section 7-20 stop
intersections to install stop signs on Parton Avenue at its intersection with North Brook Drive and intersection with partney Drive may I have a motion in a second to adopt ordinance 25557 please motion
second I have a motion made by council president president Zen Brana seconded by councilwoman Payne now I will open it uh up to public hearing for ordinance 25557 please state your name and address for the
record seeing none I will close public hearing will clerk uh does any member of council have any comments seeing none will the clerk please call the rooll council president zamb BR hi councilman Mano hi
councilwoman pay hi councilman pansy I ordinance introduction first reading this is an introduction on ordinance 25558 there'll be no public input on this ordinance tonight the introduction
summary will be published as required by law and a second reading public hearing and final adoption will be considered on March 24th 2025 full copies of the ordinance will be posted on the B website on the Bon board at the municipal building and our
available at no cost in the office of the municipal clerk between the hours of 8:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday will the clerk please read ordinance 25558 by title Please ordinance to amend chapter 22 electrical service section
2238 general service of the revised General ordinances of the burough of miltown section 22383 Service rates may I have a motion in a second to adopt ordinance 25558 please motion motion made by council president Zam
Brana seconded by councilwoman Payne will a clerk um I'm sorry I'd like to discuss this if it's possible I'm sorry am I able to discuss this yeah I okay I have two things in essence I I I agree with this and I have no problem with but I'll bring up two
things um the one if I can read it's from an article in uh New Jersey business and uh industry Association as to our as to R in New Jersey utility providers well I'm going to read this it's it's like three par
three paragraphs we simp simply cannot push all electrification policies that drive up the use of electricity while simultaneously continuing to adopt policies that shut down gener generation of clean natural gas and discourage the development of clean natural gas facilities New Jersey needs to reverse
course immediately not only to avoid future pain from our energy bills but also to meet the growing energy demand that will come with more centers and other technology utility providers in New Jersey annually purchase electricity through auctions the winning prices for New Jersey's 24th annual for basic
general service bgs increased for all for all four regulated electric distribution companies edcs in the State starting June 1st the average monthly bill increases for New Jersey residents will be between 17.23% and
20.20% depending on the service territory it's I'm just explaining because people have asked and they think that we're doing something to rip the people off so that's why I read that but this is also I have an issue with demand charges I brought up last year uh the
situation with demand charges and I understand with um nonprofits and I can appreciate um eliminating eliminating the demand charges but we also have businesses large and small in town and especially for the small businesses um struggling just to get by maybe one
person office one person's shop and use as much or as little electricity as a homeowner and I think that that uh the demand charge is onerous on them I I'll speak about this another time but I'm bringing it up because I saw it here and it's uh to me it's an issue so I I can
appreciate for the nonprofits but I also think for the the the um shops Stores um at least small Main Street um because if you'll notice stores are leaving shops are leaving Main Street you can look up and down and you'll see that and this is part of it because people have spoken to
me about this so um that's all I'll say about that thank you I will say we haven't raised the rates in over a decade as far as I heard and uh if you averaged it out the increase of this comes up to like
1.3% per year over that time so the format which we do our raises might be something we should look at in the future but it is more fossil fuels have been cut down they haven't replaced it yet and more data
centers um increasing demand simply is what it is okay will the clerk please call the RO council president Zam Brana hi councilman moo hi councilwoman pay hi councilman pansy
I next on the agenda we have authorizing payments of Municipal obligations uh we have uh will the clerk please read resolution 25-15 by title Please authorizing the payment of bills claims and statements against the B of miltown in the total
amount of $878,000 30 you have heard the reing reading of this resolution are there any questions I do have something to add U for the bill list it's it's not a problem with anything that I see there except there's
one thing I'd like to bring up which is um Services of of supple Clooney and that they are still here I'm going to read this um they began their tenure here as a finance office a year ago now we deal with their supplementation for our staff I appreciate their help I appreciate and I still appreciate their
help especially when there was none however I expect that their services are not longstanding and I say this as I consider the taxpayers and spending of their hard-earned dollars it's always our job as council members to be as financially prudent with other people's money as we can and should be as I have brought up several times before we need
to do A needs assessment thank you may I have a motion in a second please motion second I have a motion made by council president Zam Brana second by councilwoman Payne uh will the clerk
please call the role council president s Brana I councilman Collins I'm sorry councilman moo hi councilwoman Payne hi councilman pans hi consent agenda a consent resolution has been
prepared for the resolutions listed on the agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda are to be considered routine in nature and hav't been reviewed by bur Council will be enacted on in one motion any item may be removed from the consent agenda at the request
of any council member and if so removed will be treated as a separate matter any items requiring expenditures are supported by certification of funds if any member of council wants any resolution acted upon individually please give me the resolution number and
it will be pulled from the consent resolution will the clerk please read the consent agenda resolution please whereas pursuant to the rules of council the council May establish a consent agenda for any regular or special meeting meetings upon certain conditions and whereas each of the following resolutions to be presented before the
burrow council at its March 10th 2025 meeting appear to have the unanimous approval of all members of the burrow Council resolutions 2025 d127 through 2025 132 now therefore be it resolved by the burrow Council of the burrow of miltown that each of the above
listed resolution be approved and adopted by the burrow council with the same legal effect as though each was read its entirety at the March March 10th 2025 meeting adopted by separate vote May I have a second uh Motion in a second please motion
second I have a motion made by council president Zam Brana seconded by councilwoman Payne will the clerk please call the role council president Zam Brana I councilman Mano hi councilwoman Payne hi councilman pan uh reports from elected officials
council president Z BR please thank you uh Mr Mayor uh I have three short reports uh the human Relations Committee met last Tuesday uh the 4th at uh 7:00 in Bur in Bur in the burough conference room in person uh we're going to try to
do that two or three times a year uh in person to uh and and our particular meeting was uh just to see each other in person um but also to discuss details of projects that we'd like to tackle in this year um I'd also like to remind everyone that March's women's History
Month uh revitalization committee will meet tomorrow um and it will be an online and inperson meeting so we'll we'll meet a little bit on online at about 7:00 and then we will go to a local establishment to greet greet each other and uh get together and talk about uh some of the events that we have
planned for miltown uh Day this year uh and then last Thursday the finance committee which consists of myself councilman Potter and Council panski met with our burough ba and CFO uh to finalize our 2025 budget uh which is planned to be introduced at the next
meeting on March 24th um the budget adoption and presentation will take place at the second meeting of April uh which will be Monday April 28th and that concludes my reports thank you thank you uh did councilman Collins give
anybody's reports I just have the library uh events that were I have the library one what okay well that's L however you feel you go and then um I have the Electric Board um all righty
uh so uh for the library drop in play on 3:11 at 10:30 a.m. there is a library board meeting 3:11 at 6:30 p.m. uh that is open to the public uh Minecraft and
The Big Bad Wolf on 312 uh 315 registration is required the craft Corner 3:13 at 300 p.m. the breakfast Art Club 3:15 10:30 a.m. for children in grades K through 3 registration required
read to a pooch uh 3:15 the day 3:15 at 12:30 p.m. St Patrick's State coffee antisocial 3:17 at 1:30 p.m. tween Craft on 3:18 at 300 p.m. a 2 p.m. movie
celebrating women's History Month Little Women on 3:19 at 2: p.m. at after school Jeopardy 3:20 at 300 p.m. crochet for beginners 3:22 at 11:00 a.m. adult yoga at 3:24 at 9:15 registration required
the writing club uh which is uh got a lot of people doing that on 324 at 11:00 a.m. March Madness Bingo 3:24 at 6:30 p.m. wear your favorite basketball shirt and as always the L thanks you for their
support um in the electric report um I will just give a brief uh few things synopsis of rather than line for line um you notice a lot of high wind this winter and uh over the last couple years
I know the DPW has really stepped up and taken care of a lot of trees and a lot of problems um and for all of our high wind we've had I think less occurrence uh in this last year than certainly other years and uh you know not a lot of
us year but if we could give a quiet Round of Applause in our heads in our minds that were thinking of them um so there were some street lights that were replaced with energy efficient LEDs on Durst Fern Reva Wilson and South Moes battery maintenance was of course
performed at the substation um and extra patrols were out looking for broken tree limbs with all the strong winds that have occurred uh calls for low hanging wires were answered uh the diesel generators test uh diesel generators the owns were
tested uh in the general maintenance of and security of the Town that's always done uh the water department has always continues their strong work um monitoring of the pumps is always done on a regular schedule and uh if anyone
still hasn't signed up please sign up for the water meter Replacements program through VPO it's on the website um it has been proven to be a very painless process uh they're very good about scheduling they have availability uh they give you a text message when
they're confirming your date when they're on their way um it's all moved very well and so to say it in a polite way it's kind of a mandatory deal because what the eventual endgame of that process is
is that it's going to save the town a lot of money if we don't have to have a guy physically go and do meter readings it will enable uh that person to be doing other tasks it will enable electronic billing and a better Billing
System that will internally in the offices save them both time and money uh less confusion it is just better for the town with that said when it isn't done it's going to be a a nickel holding
up $30,000 to say it that way uh meaning that it's got be done and you know there there at some point will have to be probably some type of um monetary incentive to make sure that people who haven't signed up do sign up um it's a
nice way of saying there's probably going to be a search charge for people who are avoiding signing up for whatever reason because it's for the good of the town but it really for it to go online in mass and be what it's supposed to be
it's got be everybody so um beyond that I will just say um these fire hydrants in town that you may see being replaced we used to play outside people uh a lot of money to do that and with uh some of the new staff that we've had over the
last couple years um they take care of that internally now and they're uh really doing quite well for us um the only other mention is the reminder that the annual hydrant flushing will begin in in April uh please sign up for in
Civic ready for water and SE updates via Tex message um just people understand it real quickly I don't want to drag this on too much longer uh but some of the flushing that gets done in understanding just the concept we have some places where water just stops some places where
it's a loop um and sometimes in those dead ends and Corners um you have to do that uh just to avoid backups and and water quality issues in the long run that's why it happens it's not U there's a lot of reasons but you also have to
test the hydrant as well thank you councilwoman pay yes thank you Mr Mayor um the Public Safety Committee which is myself and councilman Potter and posnansky met with uh the chief of
police chief Johnson on March 4th on Tuesday night and he updated his updated us on several things several issues uh one of those being a mandatory updating to the dispatching system so um the chief as always is doing a tremendous amount of research and work
on that and provided us with a lot of information uh we spoke about some new recruits um and I'm going to uh say in terms of my report that during February the police covered 62 Crossing posts so
now that we have a qpa um on board for the township we're working on a solution with those issues as well uh the police in the month of February responded to 1134 calls for service um 13 arrests were made one for DWI and others for
shoplifting active warrants and drug paraphernalia um just as a reminder and I'll try to be consistent with this um is that for anything that is a non-emergency situation please call 73 32828 1100 of
course in case of emergencies dial 911 and that in bold underlined in capitals from the chief do not rely on social media as the information that can be shared uh can oftentimes be incorrect or misleading so if you need information
with regard to any issues Reach Out directly to the police department the fire department uh as always had a very busy month um there were 16 total incidents calls um and year to date 44 of those um
the number of hours um put in were 243 uh for the month of February and 748 uh year to date um the chief uh Chief f um listed notable fire calls and
there were two um incidents where a car went into a pole on M and Hill and on Washington Avenue and everybody got out safe thinking that um one member has started fire school which is that's really exciting and they're doing they were had a new
training um class for Swift water class so we went over to the fire department and we learned a whole lot about that and what that means and it's all really great stuff and they work together with the rescue squad um and they also received Factory training for their new
air packs so I learned a whole bunch about air packs too and it's that was pretty cool to learn all about that um as always um if anyone is interested um please email the fire department or stop by on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. they're always there at that time for a
meeting and the email address is join miltown fire gmail.com the miltown rescue squad um for February had uh the total number of calls were 76 64 in miltown eight on the turnpike and four were mutual Aid and
the squad like the fire department always looking for new um recruits applications for the next round of training need to be submitted by March 31st so if anyone is interested it can email recruitment at miltown rescu squad. org or stop by the squad um for
information and that concludes my report thank you councilman panski sure um I'm going start with the senior center um March activities and presentations Monday March 12th 12 p.m. please join us for a presentation on njsa program
presented by a representative by the division on Aging a NJ save Navigator will be available to answer questions about programs for seniors accessible through NJ save there is no signup sheet for this event all are welcome to attend
Monday March 24th 12:30 p.m. please join us for a question answer session with our code enforcement officer Marty O'Neal all are welcome to attend and no sign up is required the VNA nurse will be available for appointments on Tuesday March 18th from 12:00 p.m. to 3: p.m.
the service is available for miltown seniors free of charge each month please sign up on the bulleon board if you are interested we have a weekly lunch program on Wednesdays sponsored by Elijah's promise on Wednesdays 12:30 p.m. please check the calendar for events um there is no mhpc uh report
tonight but I have a DPW report first I'd like to thank Ian and John for their talent and dedication to miltown for repairing the water main breaks we've had many um we've had them all winter I've been at everyone except for the first one and as they are in um they're fully in the trenched holes they're
muddy from head to toe they remind me from the movie Dirty Harry when Harry Callahan is asked why he was called by this nickname he replies every dirty job that comes along the brown from head to toe Ralph jasnowski and Beth came to the senior center to do a presentation and
asked me to join them for um a Q&A topics were water rates smart meters electric rates and the battery pack system I was asked questions and then I decided to address each as I've educated myself to explain to the seniors to alleviate their fears um and that's one thing I've told people're they're afraid
it's not that they don't want to do this they're afraid they think they're scams and and things like that so um I I can appreciate what what uh councilman moo said about uh sending notices to to people about possible fines but these people are scared and
even though I tried to eliminate their fears they still have them and some of the people said they're not going to they're going to wait till we come to them and I tried to help them um I'd like to also thank Beth FIA Marty Ralph John eer Don Herman and the DPW staff with their patients surviving the lack
of heat since the middle of December in the DPW building they hopefully do not need to wear their winter coats ski pants and long johns any longer I believe that the parts have been installed and the heating system is back and uh this concludes my report thank you thank you councilman Potter report
is going to be read by councilwoman Payne thank you Mr Mayor on behalf of councilman Potter from the miltown recreation department thank you to everyone who bought tickets for the New Jersey Devils game on Monday March 24th we look forward to seeing you
there did that no that didn't pass okay the soccer clinics at Park View school started on Thursday March 6th with a high of registration rate this four-week program will end on Thursday March 27th the fresh theater arts program will conclude this winter session with a
Showcase of High School Musical on Tuesday March 25th at Joyce Kilmer school the senior center new chess program is halfway through its season and the kids are having a great time the program is set to conclude on Monday March 17th the youth the youth
basketball program had an incredible season and will be ending on Saturday March 22nd please come out and support the fifth to eth grade division in their championship game the recreation department is still accepting applications for seasonal summer employment at the miltown burrow pool
and Albert Avenue summer W Camp please note that there will be no applications available in person at the recreation department all applications must be submitted electronically to the recreation department at km McGrath or no K McGrath
miltown bor.com all applications are due by April 1 2025 registration for spring and adult youth programs is open we are still in need of soccer coaches we are excited to announce a new adult Pilates program
registration is now open and the program is set to begin on Tuesday April 22nd as spring approaches don't forget to contact the recreation department to secure your date to rent Albert Avenue Park after that you can complete the fillable application on the recreation
website on planning board the meeting on March 5th was cancelled and then the next meeting is scheduled for April 2nd from the Midtown 4th of July organization join us for a night of fun and Community Spirit at our annual celebrity bartender event at the
American Legion on Saturday March 22nd this year we are thrilled to invite the mayor and Council to be some of our celebrity bartenders for the evening come and see your local leaders in action serving the community tickets are now available for purchase at the
following locations Bagel Express m countes Mike's Country Market Maria's mtown convenience Kelly and Company Hair Design and Rescue by Lacy don't miss out on this fantastic event grab your tickets today and be part of an unforgettable night we look forward to
seeing you there at 7 p.m. right I think that begins seven and that concludes Dave's report thank you um for our attorney Peter vello no report tonight Mr Mayor bro Engineers C thank you Mr
Mayor excuse me um first a report on the water meter replacement project um to date 394 Replacements have been completed um of which 27 are going through their final valid validation
process that's 233 installations completed since our last report at the last meeting um 390 Replacements are currently scheduled and um when you look at the number that are completed and the number that are scheduled there's about
67% of billing Cycles 1 2 and six that have been completed or are scheduled to date um moving on a week ago today there were preconstruction meetings held for the Albert Avenue Park bike path project
and the Northbrook Drive improvements um those projects are uh well with Northbrook drive it looks like that's going to begin sometime in mid April ail and Albert Avenue Park will be um a little
later sometime beginning in May um and finally there is a utility committee meeting scheduled for this Thursday to discuss some of the final bidding details for the energy storage system project and that concludes my
report Mr Mayor thank you is did Mr car leave a report no B clerk Monica Orlando thank you Mr Mayor election day deadlines March 24th at 4 p.m. is the deadline for primary petitions to be filed April 16th is the deadline to file
a change of party affiliation the form is available online in the clerk's office May 20th is the deadline to register to vote before the primary election June 3rd is the deadline to apply for a mail in ballot early voting will be June 6th through June 8th we don't have an early poll location in
miltown um but surrounding towns do and Tuesday June 10th is the primary election voting will be from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and that con concludes my report thank you does any member of council have any old business to bring before Council no uh I have one um as you were
may be aware the residents of South Brook tribe experienced flooding again during the rainstorm last week uh last month I obtained engineering proposals from CME and h2m to examine the situation and determine what steps can be taken to address the flooding in
light of the continued issues I would ask that the borrow Council can authorize either CME or h2m to proceed so we might Supply the residents with some relief um I'd like to close all business
uh does anyone have any new business to bring before Council seeing none all right the public comment portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to account CC's attention their concerns or comments the council will respect the
Public's Time by refraining from any comment until the speaker is finished it should be further noted that the public comment portion of our meeting is not structured as a question and answer session please state your name and address for the record when you come to the podium just a reminder that under
the rules of council individuals wishing to speak during the public input portion of the meeting should be limited to 5 minutes and may after others have finished speaking be allowed to speak for a second 5 minute
period Steve gregas 25 Lincoln Avenue um i' like to comment on a uh on the at the last council meeting regarding both firehouses I know U was brought up as far as uh what to do with them I just want to throw my two cents in um as far
as the Cottage Avenue building um honestly I would be didn't in really selling that building I don't see any benefit in selling it and I think in the it could actually prove valuable for a future use for the town what I don't know but I just think that assets like
that should be kept I mean whether it be used for an office space you know for a burrow purpose I would be hesitant in getting rid of that it's not costing the town anything to keep it so again I I would hold on to it I think it's a
valuable asset for the town uh as far as the South Main Street Firehouse um problem with selling that building here here's what my issues are I think we all know if we were to go and say demolish that building sell the property
somebody's going to put a housing unit there and I don't want to see that in town the last thing we need in town is more housing um I think yeah you might get some money for it but I think you have to really look at the quality of life in town you know money
the money yeah would be nice but I don't want to see uh housing in town honestly if the town really was pushing to sell it I'd like to see it sold with a lease restriction on it because I think you can get somebody to buy that restore that building and put a business there
um some years ago when the spirits was still up was still standing and the building was up for sale there were a couple of guys who wanted to buy it they were going to restore the building they wanted to put a uh sports bar there but the previous or didn't want that cuz I guess the competition with the golden
mind so that idea was squashed so now again the building was leveled and I don't know what's going there the property was sold but I I just guarantee that there's going to be some kind of housing billing going up there so
um again if the town is really that bent on selling it put a lease restriction on let somebody restore the building get a business in there one thing we don't need any more housing town it's bad enough we're going to have that big housing project across the street on
South Main Street we really don't need anymore so uh again I and I do think that this should be brought up uh to the uh this should be uh something that the residents should have a saying again um
I would like to see a lot of comments from the residents of what they would like to see there personally I would love to see like to see a uh some kind of Rec Center there something that the town could use to rent out for events um I just think would again we're
talking about quality of life issues in town and I think it would benefit the town better uh one other thing switching a different subject um about a month ago my wife had uh called the burrow and this was in regards to um a neighbor of
ours that passed away and she called up about installing a bench and putting up a small garden at the tennis courts over on Pon Avenue and and um I don't know exactly what the conversation was but apparently this I think had to be brought up to council um and again this
is something that isn't going to be paid for by the burrow uh ourselves and some family members are going to be doing the work and paying for everything so um I don't I don't know was that ever brought up to burrow and who actually can would like to know who can we get permission
to go ahead with this project for M Mr vello could this be done by a simple resolution or I can take a look into it I'll get you an answer okay thank you okay all right um we'd like to you know we'll call again and we'd like
to hear something but uh okay well thank you very much thank you thank you Mr mayor council Russ binder 152a North Main Street here for a couple of capacities and I have a lot of capacities that's good uh first of all
for those of you that came this weekend and last weekend to some of the fun events that happened in miltown the Masons are friends of mine and they were very happy they have one of their best turnouts in the years at the breakfast and if you don't know about the Masons they'll be glad to tell you they do some of the wonderful things that go on all
over the country but especially our particular chapter here does a lot to lot and this past weekend thank you Mr Mayor you were there I didn't get to be there the whole time unfortunately but our boy scout once again had a great support from people around town uh at
our anal spaghetti dinner and we're helping these folks uh turn into good young citizens and hopefully when they get old like me they'll be good older citizens um thank you again for that support and while we're talking about support and going through things well one of the biggest things we do as in
town as you know is the 4th of July thank you uh councilwoman pay for talking about that um the uh celebrity B tender event there's a lot of things that'll go on this year SI the council we have some of the other old tried and true people and some new people including the Man Steve that does the
actual explosions here you know the guy that does the big Big Mo you know the big uh executioner thing that everybody likes that blows up you know and he can feel 300 feet away the guy designed that is common is going to be one of the bartenders who knows he's going to serve you as a drink but you know we're lucky
the reason I'm bringing it up also people have been asking us uh who the Grand Marshall is going to be not going to announce that tonight we're pretty much certain who's going to be but we're going to wait till that event so bartender like we traditionally do and we'll announce the winner there who's
going to be the person and the last thing is if you have not gotten tickets yet like besides what uh councilwoman Payne said they're also available online through the GI butter site that we've used for the last few years um you can go to miltown 4thofjuly.org you can go we have it on our Facebook page or
Instagram page you can see any uh member okay I have I think posted I think Monica I think I have a post here somewhere one of those posters right yeah it's all over the place so we'd love to see you there every penny we make from that goes right to the fourth right back to the town and one more thing and this is a really good thing
we're doing a really big raffle this year and just starting to announce it this week it's one of those $100 ticket Raffles where you might want to go with some friends we already sold about eight or nine just over the last couple of days uh just by word of mouth but uh
would print up to 300 of them tops so if we sell 300 of them at $100 each you guys do the math that's $330,000 split it in half that's $115,000 to give away with 10,000 to the first prize $1,000 each to the other
prizes so we give away 15,000 uh obviously it'll be less if we don't sell 300 but I'm pretty sure we'll sell most of them not all of them so you know any people from the 4th of July committee will be looking for you for the next couple of months to uh help out with that too because we have a lot of stuff
planned for this year's Fourth of July as the H 100th time we've done it in miltown and that's why the theme this year is remembering the past and igniting the future and thank you thank you anybody else seeing none I will close audience
comments are there any Council comments yes I have three things to bring up the first is uh about the water race uh there was some confusion last last week and I actually contacted uh our utility and tax collector to make sure and I'm going to read it three sentences so this comes from her the rates adopted in June
20 June 2024 will end after the first quarter billing of 2025 the $150 sech charge affected two billing quarters the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 the first quarter water sewer billing will end in March so um
I'd also like to take the time to again thank Fred car Monica for supporting miltown in our time of need to keep us operational though they have moved on to other commitments they've been guiding us with continuity until we' back fully functioning and on our feed so again Monica and Fred uh thank
you um I also want to discuss something that I had a big interest last year um it's the old DPW area compound um I'd like to discuss you know it's it's um the remediation and revitalization back to its natural state I believe is is
beneficial to the citizens the old DPW has been an eyesore for many years I I had asked the director Ralph jasnowski last year if his crew could do some Cleanup in a few days time they made a huge difference giving the area a new phas I'm hoping there can be ongoing revitalization of
the site we would need a consensus of council to determine the depth of remediation of the area I had asked Ralph if his people could clean up the site that is very visual to every resident as they crisscross miltown as I felt last year and this every improve people see is a feeling that their
taxpayer money is helping them their biggest investment their home and restoring mil towns and the collected Beauty and uh thank you I did have a couple quick things was um I I do kind of agree it would be nice
to have that DPW area if not completely revitalized which over time could have possibly happened but maybe uh just looking pretty thank you um it was mentioned to me uh District May when it comes to the water uh meter replacement that there is a wait list so I'm kind of
one of those people like I'm free next week I'll call next week because I have some free time don't do that just call get in and then you know uh get on the list because it will take some time um additionally that battery thing that you saw on the on the agenda for today um
it's just a great benefit for the town um with you know low outlay very low outlay almost no outlay uh was started and it's just a good process so hopefully we'll see that moving forward um fast enough to help us address the
oncoming onslaught of energy Rising costs over the next year or so um and also um once again my daughter says the Masons make the best pancakes thank you better than your wife
hey recorded here not saying pancakes are better okay uh we'll close Council comments I only have a quick comment uh I just wanted to provide some follow-up comments because I received some calls uh between the last council meeting and
uh and recently so um I reached out to our CFO and he indicated the water department itself is not in debt for $20 million um the total debt for the burb miltown is approximately $29 million
the water department is six 6 million the electric is 10 million and the the rest of the debt is General burrow debt but that's that's like when you get a mortgage for your house and you you pay it off over time that's what this is
this is uh projects within the burrow that uh large capital projects that were done and it's being paid off over time like the the DPW complex so and that's that was a I think a 10 or 20 year uh
mortgage or or U payment option and that'll be paid off soon and then the debt ratio will drop down so uh that's just to provide some clarification uh for the residents that uh reached out to me uh so I appreciate that uh will the
clerk please read resolution 25-33 please whereas the open public meetings ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances whereas these public bodies of the opinion that such
circumstances presently exist and whereas the governing body wishes to discuss pending litigation whereas minutes will be kept and once the matter involving the confidentiality of the above no longer requires that confidentiality than the minutes can be made public now therefore be resolved by the burrow Council of the bur miltown County middlex state of New Jersey the
public be excluded from this meeting May I have a motion in a second please motion second I have a motion made by council president Zam Brana seconded by councilwoman Payne um will the clerk please call the
rooll council president Zan BR I councilman Collins oh councilman MCO hi councilwoman pay hi councilman pansy hi we stay Peter we stay stay here yeah
that means everybody has leave sorry don't worry I told Peter it has to be quick so